Two years since the COVID-19 swept through the globe, residents confined to aged care homes across the country have reported that they were experiencing horrors in their rooms, with desperate staff members calling out for help as dangerous staff shortages take a toll on their management.

We want to share this story — originally published by The Guardian — to highlight what's happening in our aged care homes and give you an overview of the realities faced by our fellow senior citizens living in aged care.

The touching story follows Rose, a resident of an aged care home in New South Wales.

The 81-year-old said that she first learned that there was an outbreak in the shelter she was staying in when "an enormous man" she had never met before stood over her bed and woke her up at midnight.

Rose said: “He was all dressed in PPE and said, ‘you have to have a rapid antigen test [RAT] – we’ve got a case of Covid in the home'."

“It was quite a shock. When he left I pulled the sheet over my head. I could hear other residents crying because they would have been very frightened to have been woken like that. It wasn’t very well handled. I think the staff panicked.”

Aged care homes were hit the hardest since the highly infectious Omicron strain made its way to Australia in late November of last year.

Residents and staff members aired their frustration over the federal government’s COVID-19 response. Credit: The Guardian.​

Data showed that 499 aged care residents died with COVID-19 in January — a number higher than the total number of deaths in Australia in 2021. Most deaths were reported to be in New South Wales,

Additionally, another 34 aged care deaths have been recorded this month so far, bringing the total number to 533 deaths this year.

It should be noted that for the whole of 2020, the total number of aged care deaths is 685, meaning the numbers for 2022 are already catching up just two months in the year.

Statistics also showed that 1,176 aged care facilities are currently experiencing active outbreaks, with homes from NSW (525) being the most affected, followed by Victoria (275), Queensland (202), and South Australia (137).

It was reported that 11,980 aged care residents and staff had an active case on February 4.

Residents and staff members reported that dangerous staff shortages led to some workers working on personal care and food preparation despite the fact that these skill sets are outside their usual roles.

They also said that the usual scenario in homes when an outbreak occurs was pure chaos — panic and uncertainty of their own plans, with some residents immediately being locked down.

Different homes have had different rules on visits throughout the Omicron wave, meaning some residents were unable to see family and friends for weeks even when there are no active cases in their homes.

Rose's home was in lockdown from mid-January to early February. She said that she was only permitted one hour outside where she goes to the cafe under strict supervision every morning and reads the sports news from the newspaper for a friend and fellow resident who is blind in the mornings.

The 81-year-old said that she was not even permitted to go outside for fresh air.

Rose said: “My granddaughter wanted to come to the glass front door and just wave to me.”

“That wasn’t permitted sadly. And so all I can say is thank goodness for the internet. But not all residents can use the internet and [they] are just sitting in their rooms watching television 24/7. I think the lack of communication would be most sorely felt by them.”

The 81-year-old has however expressed her sentiments on how staff members handled the situation, clarifying that they showed care and compassion to the residents and she does not blame them for their management.

However, Rose said that she found the government's lack of support bewildering.

“A lot of staff have been off sick of course, and the outside staff [such as gardeners and maintenance staff] have been filling in doing a magnificent job, not with personal care, but with delivering meals and helping with the laundry, all that sort of thing. But I think the government’s been really lacking, and a lot more could have been done sooner. I think the aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, is an absolute disgrace. I mean going to the cricket … what are his priorities, really? Does he know what’s going on?”

Staff members in aged care homes call out for more workers. Credit: The Guardian.​

Rose's claim was backed by the nursing manager of her home, claiming that her outbreak management plan was supposedly based on the federal government's Covid support plan for aged care, however, when the outbreak happened in the home, she was not able to execute it.

The nursing manager said that she desperately needed extra staff but “there was no surge workforce.”

“I didn’t get a single additional staff member," she said.

She also revealed that she “hoarded and locked up PPE I found myself for the past two years in preparation for this”.

The nursing manager said: “I wasn’t going to rely on the government to supply it.”

“No way. Now it’s arriving of course, and I have 20,000 gowns I don’t know what to do with. But we may have another outbreak, so I will keep them.”

The nursing manager also addressed Rose's claim that she was woken up by a man she never met before at midnight to have them tested for COVID, saying that she believes it was closer to 10 pm than midnight when the staff sent to check the residents woke them up.

She said that the move was urgent as three staff members working in the same section of the home tested positive within 32 hours.

“But it wasn’t ideal,” she admitted.

“However, I made that call because I didn’t want any staff going in to help a resident throughout the night and then spreading it. It was also the advice the public health unit gave me."

“I am close to retirement and I have managed hospitals, worked in intensive care and acute care … and I have never felt pressure like this. I am proud that where I work now, I have had one of the highest retention rates of my staff in the industry. But not now – not since Omicron hit. The reality is, this government has made a huge number of mistakes. My staff should not be on the pittance they are being paid. I don’t think anyone in aged care is OK.”

Aged Care Matters director and public health researcher Dr Sarah Russell said that the federal government has a "hands-off approach" on the matter, emphasising that it is treating each aged care home as an individual business.

Dr Russell said: “As a result, many federal aged care homes are a law unto themselves.”

She also claimed that inconsistent and sometimes inhuman policies around visits and staff ratios were put in place in aged homes across the country.

The public health expert revealed that state-run care homes have different rules, citing that Victorian-owned public aged care homes operate under the Safe Patient Care Act, which prescribes ratios of registered nurses.

“On the morning shift, one registered nurse is required for every seven residents; in the afternoon, one registered nurse for every eight residents; and on the night shift, one registered nurse for every 15 residents,” Russell says.

“Compare this with staffing in privately-owned residential aged care homes, where a single registered nurse is often required to look after more than 100 residents. Not surprisingly, deaths in aged care homes during the current outbreak in Victoria are almost exclusively a private sector aged-care issue. And all residents in Victoria-owned aged care homes were offered a booster before Christmas.”

Other accounts by workers in aged care homes talked about how the government abandoned the homes to "fend for themselves", with many expressing their frustration over the lack of even the most basic PPE and RAT tests available.

WHO reported that senior citizens are the most vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus, but with the government's actions towards aged care home residents and workers, the situation seems to leave most of them "helpless".

More about this story can be read here.

 

[KatKop]

This is exactly why voluntary euthanasia should be available for a much wider range of situations than those described in current legislation. Except for my partner, I don't have close relatives/lifelong friends in Australia and I will have no one to look out for me should I be institutionalised. I want to have the choice to escape 'incarceration' while I am still of sound mind to do so.

 

[Ashmenou]

Politicians should spend a week as a resident in an age care home, So they can experience first hand what is real going on. Maybe then we might have ANY change

 

[leanneh]

As a resident in an aged care facility I can totally relate to Rose's case. Our facitity went into complete lockdown on the 1st January. We spent 22 days with residents confined in their rooms 24/7. No time outside in the fresh air what so ever. No visitors even at the window. It was a very distressing time. Especially for all the residents who have no digital c9nnection with their family and friends. My 94 year old Father spent his burthday alone in his room in spite of the fact that I'm in the next room. I wasn't allowed to even go to the door to see him. This lockdown went into force because we had 1 positive resident. The staff shortages are unbelievable with much of the staff working for 3 weeks with no days off and some days working 2 shifts (16 hours). It should also be remembered that this has been happening to us since the beginning of the pandemic. In 2020 we had 198 days in lockdown and 119 days in 2021. So it's an ongoing problem that seems to have no solution.

 

[KatKop]

As a resident in an aged care facility I can totally relate to Rose's case. Our facitity went into complete lockdown on the 1st January. We spent 22 days with residents confined in their rooms 24/7. No time outside in the fresh air what so ever. No visitors even at the window. It was a very distressing time. Especially for all the residents who have no digital c9nnection with their family and friends. My 94 year old Father spent his burthday alone in his room in spite of the fact that I'm in the next room. I wasn't allowed to even go to the door to see him. This lockdown went into force because we had 1 positive resident. The staff shortages are unbelievable with much of the staff working for 3 weeks with no days off and some days working 2 shifts (16 hours). It should also be remembered that this has been happening to us since the beginning of the pandemic. In 2020 we had 198 days in lockdown and 119 days in 2021. So it's an ongoing problem that seems to have no solution.

Wishing you much strength, @leanneh!

 

[JayKay]

Years ago, I had a friend in a Nursing Home.
He went there after his wife had died.
His evening meal consisted of half a party pie with half a slice of bread.
The main meal at lunchtime consisted of a plate of mush.....it always looked awful and smelled even worse.
The place was run privately, and very expensive.
Total cruelty. I reported it to the Department of Health, but as I was not family, they ignored me.
The family didn't care.

 

[Maaaaaa]

I worked in a Aged facility for 14 + year, starting as a carer and training to become a Nurse, I loved my job and we had many crisis's with Gastroenteritis and that in a Nursing home is not good, we worked long hours because staff where infected as Gastroenteritis is highly contagious. I don't know why people are so hard on Government as most of a residents pension goes to the Nursing Home and the meals are very basic, therefore the Management are not doing there job. Cost cuts in the facility I worked in meant cutting staff hours, no management where cut down on hours and the Management had a Double Story Office Building and where dressed like they own it ??? The Government pay the Pension as well as subsidies the facility per resident with a payment and that is $1,500.00 + per resident per month. Where is all this money going. I found 95% of the staff I worked with needed a medal for the amount of work they put in, this is a High Care facility. I believe, maybe residents and families should look at Management before they come down so hard on Government.

 

[SX2002]

It's rotten what these places make and don't pay their staff what they deserve...our daughter in-law is a nurse in an aged care facility and doesn't get paid any where near what she should for the hard work and hours she puts in.

 

[Alexander]

As I understand it and I will accept rebuke if I am wrong, Aged Care is controlled by the Ferderal Parliament and not State governments. The Federal government sees no votes in Aged Care anywhere so why should they be bothered. If they are not bothered about an ICAC commission in Parliament how can they possibly have any care for the Aged outside of the Canberra bubble. It is an absolute crass, uncaring decision to say it doesn't matter and we will ignore it. More money for big business is more important. It makes me sick to my stomach at the lack of any form of compassion anywhere!!! It's not their parent.

 

[Liz]

A friend of mine in another state has her husband in aged care because of dementia. He has been locked down for a long period of time last year and this. How do you explain this situtation to a person with dementia, there is no use of internet for them, they rely on telephone conversations if there is a staff member available to put a call through to the client. The whole age care sector is in a huge mess, these are our older family members who have paid their dues for this country and they should be treated with more respect and should have decent staff ratio's to clients, not just locked in their rooms. Don't get me started on this subject as I look down on the possibility that this could be my future. What was the point of the Royal Commission if the Federal Government is not going to implement any changes. I feel for my friend locked in his aged care nursing home and not understanding, and I feel for the staff doing what they can.

 

[Alexander]

What can we do? The government doesn't care so private enterprise comes in and all they see is the profit they can make. Decent food? Don't make me laugh. They are old. They are a waste of space. They are no contribution to society. Why don't they go away. Yes I am cynical. The state of the Aged Care system is diabolical and Federal Government should be ashamed. They can spend billions on a submarine that can't be seen or heard so why not billions on aged care that isn't seen or heard in Canberra. It would give many people some safety and hope for a peaceful end to what has to have been a productive life.